She Will Always Hate Me
by Kerioke
Summary: At the last minute Ron tries to repair his friendship with Hermione. Marriage Law.


AN: I do not own anything from the Harry Potter world. This isn't perfect, just something that I wrote up between jobs. Hope you enjoy.

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**She Will Always Hate Me**

He approached her slowly, trying desperately to come up with something to say to her after the last time when he totally messed up everything. He didn't think he could really fix their relationship in any way. Hell, his mother only forgave him because he was her son. His steps faltered as he watched the tall blonde man wrap an arm across the small of her back, he couldn't help the glare he sent the man.

_**Oh God it hurt**_

_**The moment that I saw you**_

_**With someone else**_

_**The one that you belong to**_

_**I never thought**_

_**I'd drown in my shallow heart**_

_**I'd like to say**_

_**The things I never used to**_

_**But come today they won't ever be useful**_

_**I never learn t to use my shallow heart**_

He pushed forward and tapped her on the shoulder, not taking notice of the group of eyes that had taken notice of his approach. She turned to face him, the friendly smile she had on her face as she spoke to some former Slytherins fell at the sight of him. He swallowed hard at the cold look she held just for him.

"Ronald, what are you doing here?"

"I was wondering if we could speak alone for a moment, I have something I wish to say to you."

"I thought I made myself pretty clear the last time you had something to say to me. What part of 'I never want to see or hear from you again' did you not understand?"

"Hermione, please." He saw Malfoy smirk at his pleading forcing himself not to react to it. " I promise I will leave you alone after this if you still wish me to."

"Nothing you say Ronald will change that fact, and the fact you chose the day before my wedding to come forward with...whatever excuse you will attempt to give tells me you haven't learned a damn thing."

"Hermione, do you want me to have him removed?"

"Stay out of this, Nott, this doesn't concern you." He could feel the angry red splotches appearing on his skin as the other man's eyes narrowed at him.

"I must disagree, Hermione is my fiancé and you are harassing her in front of all of our guests."

"Looks more like a den of snakes if you ask me."

"Well, no one asked you, Weaselbee. Why don't you run along now, the room would greatly improve then."

"Shut up, Malfoy!"

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY, What DID I tell you about staying away from their rehearsal dinner?" Molly Weasley stomped through the crowd until she stood before her son with one fist on her hip and her other hand waving her wand in his face. " I distinctly remember telling you to stay at home where you could not cause problems."

"Mother! You're seriously going to stand here and watch her marry this snake?"

"Yes, I am. It is not yours or my place to tell Hermione who she can and cannot marry." She waved her wand at him as if it were a part of her hand. "Now, off you go, you've embarrassed our family enough for the evening."

His whole face went red marginally from anger, but mostly in shame at being called out by his mother so publicly. He could see Hermione lean in to Nott more closely, her arm wound around his between them. He really had screwed things up between them. He turned and walked back out of the room, trying to tune out the gossiping whisper following his steps.

The only voice still truly registering in his ears was his mother apologizing to Hermione for the less than tactful behavior of her son. He never heard her reply as the doors had finally shut behind him.

_**I, I, I**_

_**I never meant to hurt you**_

_**It's just something I do**_

_**I guess it's not a good excuse**_

_**And she will always hate me**_

_**No matter what I say**_

_**And there is no mistaking**_

_**The love is gone**_

_**She will always hate me**_

_**She said, you lost me baby**_

_**No matter what I say**_

_**The love is gone**_

He wondered down the streets with his head down and glaring at the dull concrete beneath his feet. The people around him had to jump out of his way so as to not run in to him, many shouted at him to pay attention to where he was going, but he paid them no mind. His thoughts drifting to that last week nearly a year ago...

_Monday July 3, 2000_

_He walked in to the Burrow after a stressful day in Auror training to see his mother, Ginny, and Hermione all crowded together looking rather horrified at a piece of parchment in his mother's hand. Dropping the duffel bag he had been carrying on to the family room floor with a overly loud thump he watched all of their faces look up at him with a air of disbelief._

"_Oi, what's got you all looking like someone died?"_

"_The Ministry is passing a new law, and it's outrageous!" Ginny said, her teeth grinding over the words._

"_So, what is so shocking about that? They pass laws all the time, you don't make a fuss about all the other ones."_

"_This is different, Ron, this law interferes with affairs that are not the Ministry's business to begin with." Hermione sighed as he just raised an eyebrow at her in confusion. She sat down in the chair next to Ginny before looking back at him. "They are enforcing a marriage law on witches and wizards between the ages of 17 and 30. If one is not already lawfully bound or intended to be wed by this Friday then they will be matched per the Ministry's choosing."_

"_That's just silly, it will probably fall through, too many people will be against it in the Wizengamot. You don't need to worry about it." He went to the kitchen and began rummaging around for something to eat. "Besides, they cannot expect anyone to get married or become engaged in such short notice."_

"_They didn't expect that of anyone, Ronald, this notice was dated two months ago. No one made it known that we had moved from Grimmauld Place back here since the Burrow was rebuilt. It was only by chance that Ginny saw it when she went over there to get some supplies we had left behind."_

"_There were a bunch of letters addressed to you from the Ministry as well, Ron. Then, I came across this one addressed to me from the the Auror department head asking me if I knew why you have not been responding to his owls regarding your attendance in training. I wrote him back several hours ago explaining that the owls had been delivered to the wrong house by mistake, but that you've been going to training every day as far as I knew." Molly watched her son's face pale as she spoke. "Then, just two hours ago I received another owl from him advising me that you have not been to training in a month; what is going on Ron? If you have not been in training all this time where have you been going, you come home and speak as if that's where you've been, but I don't see why the department head would say differently if it were true. Where have you been going, Ron?"_

_Hermione and Ginny both looked at him curiously as his mother waited for his reply, he didn't know what to say to them._

"_WEASLEY FAMILY! Why are we looking so dreadfully serious when the world is looking so wonderful today?"_

_Saved at least temporarily by his father's over the top entrance from work he quickly moved out of the way so the Weasley patriarch could greet his wife with a hug and kiss. Noticing everyone's distraction he used the moment to slip out of the room so he could come up with something to say._

_That night..._

"_Romania?!" His mother shrieked! "Ronald, you cannot be serious."_

"_And why not, there is plenty I could do to help Charlie out at the sanctuary."_

"_Ron, you have no experience with dragons." Hermione said with a sigh. "And breaking out of Gringotts on the back of one does not count for experience, if anything we got lucky it didn't try to eat us after we jumped on its back. And the only other time you were even near a dragon was at Hogwarts Triwizard Tournament, and you were watching from the stands."_

"_Thanks for having my back, Mione." He snapped waspishly at her._

"_I am not going to simply encourage you to go do just anything when it is potentially dangerous and you could wind up seriously hurt or worse. Charlie actually studied dragons before he was allowed to work at the lowest job on the sanctuary grounds. What do you honestly know about dragons that qualifies you for even the lowest job?"_

"_Whatever, I'm going out." He snatched his coat off the sofa and stormed out of the house._

_Wednesday July 5, 2000_

_A knock sounded on the Burrow door just as they were sitting down for breakfast, everyone at the table glanced around at one another in question. Who could possibly be visiting at such an hour? Ginny stood and went to answer the persistent knocking. As she opened the door everyone behind her saw her head cock to the side._

"_What are you doing here?"_

"_What a question, I am looking for Ronald of course. Where is my Ronald?"_

"_I'm sorry, come again 'your Ronald', you are aware that he and Hermione have been going out for a while now?"_

"_That's not the impression he has been giving me, Gin."_

"_It's Ginny." She glanced over her shoulder at the group still watching her at the table. Mrs. Weasley stood and walked over to her daughter to find out what is going on._

"_Why don't you just let me in, Gin, I'm sure Ronald will confirm what you clearly are in denial about."_

"_Ginny, dear, what's going on? Who is your friend?"_

"_She is no friend of mine. She is claiming that her and Ronald are an item..."_

"_Oh, we are very much an item, we have been out on several dates in Hogsmead and Diagon Ally over the last several weeks."_

"_I'm sorry, dear, what did you say your name was again?"_

"_My apologies, Molly, I'm Eloise Midgen."_

"_Well, Miss Midgen, you seem to forget your manners, my daughter asked you to call her Ginny, yet you continue to ignore that request, and frankly my dear, you don't know me well enough to call me by first name bases." Mrs. Weasley pushes in front of Ginny to better block the doorway. "Now, my youngest son is not currently here, please get off my property."_

"_I don't understand, I'm his girlfriend."_

"_So you keep saying, but as far as anyone in this household knows is that Hermione Granger is dating my son. So, until he rebuffs that knowledge in my presence that is what I will believe."_

_Mrs. Weasley shut the door with a thud bringing the conversation with the young woman to an abrupt end. She turned to the curious crowd at the table. The look she gave Hermione made the girl sit up straighter and assume a concerned expression. "It would seem that Ronald has some explaining to do."_

_Harry walked in from the night shift just a few minutes after, he stopped short of the thunderous looks on the three women in the kitchen and the worried expressions of the men around them. "What's happened now?"_

"_Harry Potter, where have you been?"_

"_Sorry, they asked me to stay for the night shift, apparently someone didn't show up. Where's Ron, he wasn't at work last night and he wasn't coming in as I left."_

"_That's part of the issue, Harry." Ginny said and motioned for him to take a seat before accioing the announcement to her hand. "First, there was this. I found it along with several other letters and memos at Grimmauld Place yesterday. Whoever was supposed to let the Ministry know we were no longer residing there forgot or didn't communicate the information clearly. This announcement has been sitting there for two months; the Ministry is passing a marriage law that will effect everyone unmarried between the ages of 17 and 30, if you are not legally married or engaged to be by Friday 7th of July your name will be put in the mix to be matched with someone of the Ministry's choosing."_

"_This is insane...but it would explain the major uprise several weeks back, I'm only in training so they didn't give me any real details, just that whatever it was they were angry with the Wizengamot for had been declared final, and anyone who went against them would be taken to Azkaban."_

"_Harry, what about us? I know we have talked about the future, but neither of us were ready to get married."_

_He looked at her in silence for a moment before running a hand across the back of his neck with a sigh. "Gin, the only thing I can think to do is to go to the Ministry marital office and inform them that we are intending to be married. If an engagement is all that's needed to keep our names out of the Ministry's mixing bowl them I'm alright with that. I don't want anyone else and Merlin help me if the Ministry thinks I would be ok with them picking my partner for me."_

_Ginny smiled a watery smile at him before wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her head in his chest._

He remembered not showing back up at the Burrow till late Friday morning, Hermione was fuming and had promptly slapped him upon seeing him. She had screamed at him for cheating on her with the Midgen girl...

_Friday July 7, 2000_

_SLAP_

"_How could you?"_

"_How could I what you crazy woman?!"_

"_You cheated on me." Her ire raised noticeably at his look of confusion. "Are you honestly going to deny that you haven't been seeing Eloise Midgen behind my back! She had the nerve to show up here two days ago, Ron, claiming that the two of you had been on several dates around Hogsmead and Diagon Alley. Do you have any idea what that makes me look like? Do you even care?"_

"_So what, I took her out a few times it doesn't mean anything. It was only a bit of fun, you never want to do the things I do."_

"_Ronald, have you any idea what that makes people think about, Hermione? You cannot be in a relationship with someone and then just take another girl out around town." Molly waved her wooden spoon in his face, her voice stern and horrified._

"_What exactly do I not do that you want that honestly excuses this behavior, because frankly I don't understand. You want to go to the local quidditch games and I go with you despite the fact I do not care one wit about the sport. I listen to you drone on about quidditch when I'd rather be reading a good book or going out with one of our friends. I moved out of the flat I'd rented to come live with you here, even though as much as I love your family I wanted my own place to start my own life after I left My final year of Hogwarts since the War ended...so what is it that I don't do for you?"_

"_I don't think we need to be discussing this in front of everyone, Mione."_

"_That's where you're wrong, Ronald. You've made me look like a fool for all of our wizarding community while gallivanting around with Eloise. I think among this group you deserve to have your embarrassing little excuse made public. You're referring to the fact that I want have sex with you yet as the thing I won't do that you want to, am I wrong?"_

"_That's not..."_

"_Then what is it?!"_

_He could t even respond, there were few things that she honestly didn't like to do that he did and yet she still joined him in those as she'd already stated. He saw her eyes flash in anger and her nose wrinkle in disgust._

"_That's what I thought." Her arms fell limply to her sides as she held her chin up stiffly. "I'm leaving and after I'm gone, I never want to see your stupid face again."_

_He watched her turn and run up the stairs to the room she'd been sharing with Ginny since moving back to the Burrow. His mother and sister following close behind her. Harry just shaking his head at him disappointment clear on his face before turning and leaving the room along with George._

—

_**Looking back I guess I'm holding onto**_

_**The good we had**_

_**But I know it's wrong to**_

_**Because in the end**_

_**She's never gonna hold my heart**_

_**And now she knows**_

_**She doesn't want to know me**_

_**I'm not supposed to be the one that's lonely**_

_**I never thought that she could have a cold, cold heart**_

He remembered getting a copy of the Prophet via owl in Romania that showed the announcement of Hermione's engagement to Theodore Nott the date set for the following year. It was obvious he was not going to even have the slightest chance of fixing anything not even their friendship.

_**I, I, I**_

_**I never meant to hurt you**_

_**It's just something I do**_

_**I guess it's not a good excuse**_

_**And she will always hate me**_

_**No matter what I say**_

_**And there is no mistaking**_

_**The love is gone**_

_**She will always hate me**_

_**She said, you lost me baby**_

_**No matter what I say**_

_**The love is gone**_

Looking up he noticed he had managed to walk all the way back to the tiny flat he now shared with his own fiancé. He didn't want to ascend the stairs to see her knowing look, and again wondered if someone hadn't arranged for him to end up with her after everything. Opening the door he was greeted much as he expected.

Eloise's smirk was sharp as she watched him enter the room. "Did she forgive you?"

"What do you care, you got what you wanted, to be with one of the heroes of Britain's Wizarding World."

"Unfortunately not the one I really wanted it seems."

_**Fin.**_


End file.
